A recent survey conducted by LiveRail found that young adults (18-24) now spend more time watching Web-distributed video than broadcast television. LiveRail concluded that this trend was largely due to an increase in the availability of quality, long-form content from sites like Hulu and TV.com rather than increased viewing of short-format user-generated content. 53% of the respondents stated that, in an average month, they spent “more time watching online video than TV.” About 19% of respondents said they watched “about the same,” while 28% said they watched “more TV than online video.” If this survey is accurate,  TV may be losing its dominance of the media landscape more rapidly than many have predicted.

Although I believe there is no argument that online video is increasing in importance, I question the results of this survey because it was done exclusively using online social networking sites such as MySpace and FaceBook. This research approach most likely significantly skewed the data and rendered the results “unscientific.” Even though I don’t trust the results, the survey does cause me to wonder how fast online video (especially long-format video) really is replacing TV for the younger generation. What is your opinion?

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